Knicks are having hard time trading Courtney Lee

Zach Lowe of ESPN has reported that the Knicks having been trying to move Lee.

Here’s a portion of what he wrote:

They’ve been trying, sources say. With Lee on the books, the Knicks can carve out about $30 million in room depending on where they draft — that’s about $8 million short of Durant’s max, and $3 million below the max for a player with between seven and nine years of experience.

They would prefer not to sacrifice a second-round pick in shedding Lee’s $12.7 million salary for 2019-20. That is going to be harder than you’d think, and maybe harder than it should be. New York needs to find a playoff team that values Lee’s on-court contributions more than the cap space it would sacrifice to get him.

The Knicks can only hope that a playoff contender becomes desperate for help and Lee can be the guy they need prior to the trade deadline.

With the emergence of undrafted rookie Allonzo Trier this preseason, Lee has become more expendable. It also doesn’t help that Frank Ntilikina can play the two as well as the one.

With the Knicks going younger, they no longer need Lee and he deserves to be a on team that has a chance at winning the championship.

I agree with Lowe’s prediction that the Knicks will trade Lee, but we can only hope that they won’t need to give up a second round pick as a part of the deal.